Fort St. George and Bombay, with a discretionary power to act without the concurrence of their respective councils. Under all these circumstances, he felt it necessary to solicit an elucidation of this new system from the ministers of the Crown.

be so, the order of the day fully proved. The new clauses, however, which had been introduced, in order to rectify the old blunders, or rather under pretence of having that for their object, went much farther, and tended to establish a system, that in his opinion was multiplied with inconsistencies, and fraught with injurious Lord Walsingham contended, that there restrictions. There seemed to be some- was not, in the present Bill, any reflecthing levelled at the commander in chief, tion whatever meant on the conduct of general Sloper, by the first provisional general Sloper, and that his appointment clause in the Bill, where he was incapa- was not at all considered when the clauses citated from sitting at the council in any alluded to were introduced. There was a of the presidencies. Why this interdic- general benefit meant in the alteration ; tion was introduced, it would be requisite and it would respect every commander in for ministers to demonstrate, or it might chief, as well as the able and experienced be a supposition not ill-founded to ima- officer now commanding the military in gine, that the disappointment which a that part of the world. The principle of certain person met in general Sloper, and the Bill had for its object that which the not his friend being appointed, had ope- former Bill intended; there was no part of rated in the introduction of this disgrace- the intention abandoned, the meaning was ful clause. There certainly did not appear still the same-a reform in the executive on the face of the Bill, in its preamble, or government of India, a reform which was in any of its contents, one reason to war- most loudly called for. As to any new rant so flagrant a departure from what powers given to the governor-general, had been considered as an actual part of they were such as were found expedient the necessary appendage to the conse- to the system established. A division of quence, as well as the power of a com- sentiment, of political sentiment, whether mander in chief. That the governor- from private pique or from public motives, general should be invested with great had too often stopped the operations of power, was a truth, which experience had government in that part of the world, taught us to be salutary to the politics of created confusion and multiplied difficulIndia; but that he should have new and ties. To avoid this in future, and to put extraordinary powers given him, required into the hands of the governor those more arguments to demonstrate, than had powers, without which his executive goyet been adduced in any discussion on the vernment must be impeded, were the topic of India. He was led to make this great outline of one part of the system; remark, from that part of the Bill which and he begged the House to recollect, ran to this effect: "That so much of the that it was by the exertion of such auformer Act should be repealed as ap- thority that India was saved by lord Clive. pointed, that in case of sickness of any of Many other instances, where it was rethe counsellors of Fort William, Fort St. quisite that the governor-general should George and Bombay, or in case of their have this extensive authority, must be in absence for fourteen days, the senior civil the memory of all acquainted with the servant of the Company on the spot should transactions of India, and it was on the succeed." For this repeal introduced a most mature deliberation, and from the new mode, which was, that such civil best established premises that the concluofficer should be at least twelve years re- sions were drawn on which the present sident in India. This was an interdiction system respecting India was founded. to the employment of men of merit in As to any disappointed views of any percases of emergency, unless they had en- son with whom he had the honour to act, titled themselves to the situation by twelve he knew not what the noble earl could years servitude. It would be necessary mean. General Sloper was an officer of for ministers to explain the reasons for high estimation; and as he had not comthis alteration in the old laws of the Committed any fault to deserve disapprobapany. There were other clauses, which also came within the same questionable shape, in respect to empowering the governor-general of Fort William, in Bengal, and the several governors or presidents of

tion, it was not natural to suppose that an act of parliament would be passed, in which a clause was introduced to give him personal offence.

Viscount Stormont observed, that he

refrained from opposing the least amend-swer, declared, that they were totally out ment in the former Bill which passed, be- of the question, as the matter entirely lay cause it was in itself so absurd, so ridicu- with the board. Thus sent backwards lous, so inefficacious, so unconstitutional, and forwards, when application was made, and so oppressive, that any alteration must it was a pretty evident truth that the prebe an amendment. And yet in these al- sent system was to take away all responsiterations, as was justly observed by the bility in respect to India. This was so noble earl who spoke first, there were a totally different from the practices to variety of errors-errors of a very capital which this constitution had been habinature, which the noble lord who rose to tuated, that there was every reason to defend the principle of the Bill was not so warrant a disapprobation of the ministerial happy as, in his mind, to remove. The plan in respect to India. The whole opefirst Bill was indeed a most pernicious bill, rations of Government were bad; for as to and yet, even pernicious as it was, ministers system, or any thing like system, it was so highly plumed themselves upon its jus- not to be found in their conduct; a kind tice and its purity, that they actually de- of heterogeneous mass of contradictions clared that they should plant their exist- and weakness marked all their transactions. ence in office and their characters as They had neither strength nor stability. statesmen, upon its rectitude, its efficacy, He could not avoid again turning to the and its faultless political wisdom. Yet situation of general Sloper, whose characbefore that very Bill had been many months ter as an officer was held in high repute. in India, and almost as soon as its execu- What did the present Bill effect in respect tive clauses began to operate, ministers to that officer? It wounded the soldier in found themselves under the necessity of his honour, without affording him dignity repealing some of its most essential parts. in his disgrace, or splendour in retirement. The noble lord had declared, that this Bill He mentioned those terms, because his did not mean to injure, or curtail the dismissal from the council must be conpower of general Sloper personally; but strued into disgrace, and the consequent that it went to all commanders in chief, giving up of his military command, must who might be appointed in future, as well make him retire from service. As to the as to him. Was this the real fact, and clause which gave to the commander in was there not some sudden cause-some chief such extensive powers, he was consecret motives in the transaction, which fident that the noble lord, who by his could not meet the face of open day, and recent appointment was to enjoy them, stand the test of truth? The injury done would not abuse his trust; but it should be to the general was not indeed openly considered it might one day happen that pointed-it was a blow in ambush-it was some man; with the ambitious mind of an oblique command to him to resign Cromwell, might find himself at the head his authority, because, after passing this of the council and of the army in that Act, he could no longer hold it with ho- part of the world, and there clothed with nour to himself, nor with credit to the a supreme authority, and with unlimited profession. This, no doubt, was a cir- control, he might look to a degree of cumstance, which the framers of the Bill supremacy which should ever deprive this knew, when they introduced the clause to kingdom of its Asiatic dominions. He did deprive him of his seat at the council not mean by this, that the hands of the board. As the India business was now governor-general should be tied up so as established, there did not appear any per- to prevent him from exercising a very son who was actually responsible to the great authority, because in the nature of public for the transactions of that empire. the case, from his situation, and a variety There was not any one to apply to from of other very extraordinary circumstances, whom a satisfactory answer could be had, he should be armed with the most ample or who deemed himself actually amenable and extensive powers; but he should not to the laws of his country. There was an have those powers in the extraordinary evident proof of this upon record; manner, and under the still more extraor tain papers were moved for, which the dinary restrictions of the present Bill. House denied as dangerous, in the very Their lordships would please seriously to moment when the Board of Control said, attend to the clauses mentioned by a noble they had nothing to do with the matter, earl (Fitzwilliam), to the ridiculous, and, as it was commercial, and when the Court in a variety of other respects, the injurious of Directors, in consequence of that an- tendency of the whole. To what hardships

cer

was,

his conduct, and then they propose an oath. Now the question in this respect whether the oath bent him more than the responsibility, or the responsibility more than the oath; and in another point of view, it was, whether he could with safety take that oath? In the common course of reason it appeared, that he could; and on this account-the oath was a solemn declaration, that the governor-general, in his conscience and judgment, swore that he was convinced that it was essentially conducive to the interests of the East India Company, or to the safety or tranquillity of the possessions in India, that the order and resolutions now made, declared, and recorded, &c. should, and ought to be made in the council there. Was it possible that any man laying his hand upon his heart could take such an oath, and say he had sworn the truth? Nay, the oath went farther :it declared in the same solemn manner from the mouth of the governor-general, that he conceived himself bound in duty to order and command the same to be recorded on opposition, and notwithstanding the dissent of every other member of the council. A man in this case, who accept

respect to an officer openly appointed by Government, and to whose merit that Government paid, in words, the highest respect, whilst in deeds they were doing it the most essential injury? What palliative could ministers offer, that a soldier in such a case could accept? What excuse could they make for an act of perfidy? Neither promotion nor money could excuse them, or make him satisfaction. He was the man of their choice; and deservedly so, no doubt: but, strange to tell, before he had done any thing, almost as soon as he was landed in the place whither he was sent out, he is followed by an act of parliament to degrade him; in short, to force him to give up that command with which he had just been honoured, but which it was found expedient to make him resign, that the political principles of disappointed consequence at home might be satisfied. This, in fact, was the origin of the clause for exempting the commander-in-chief from the council; for it did not at all answer the purposes of the new India scheme of government, that one person high in office should be a watch or a check upon another. It was found necessary to establish a despoticed the governor-generalship of India, must government in that part of the world, and to prevent as much as possible any cries of Asiatic distress, any complaints of Eastern tyranny, from reaching the courts of British justice. He begged that it might not be understood, that he meant even the most distant reflection on the character of the newly-appointed governorgeneral. He was a man too high in honour, probity, and patriotic spirit, to be bribed by any set of men in the word. He was a person with whom he had long held an intimate acquaintance, and to whose character no panegyric, though ever so high, could do more than common justice. He much feared, that the unsuspecting disposition of this noble lord had laid him open to the snares of political men, and that he, as a bright character of justice, was to be led innocently into a system of government, where indeed his heart and inclination would never permit him knowingly to err; but where the principles of the Bill under which he was to act, must either lead him into unintentional criminality, or into speedy resignation. He begged the House to attend to the circumstance of the oath. The India Company gave a man the most absolute command, under an act of parliament, which has a clause to make him responsible for [VOL. XXV. ]

have a very complying conscience upon oath; or, at least, a conscience that relied for its purity on the purity of others. How could any man swear that he was convinced in his judgment and conscience that a matter was absolutely conducive to the interests of a trading company, when he had not examined what passed at home as well as what passed abroad? and when it was impossible for him to know, on account of the distance and the fluctuations of politics, that which was essentially conducive to the interests of the Company?

The Earl of Abingdon said:-My Lords; I do not rise to enter into the discussion of Indian politics, their remoteness from hence has pretty well kept them out of the reach of my inquiry, and their complexion has not (hitherto at least) been of that cast as to make them either the wish of curiosity, or the object of improvement to me; and when I have said this, I have perhaps offered two of the best reasons that can be given in support of a Bill that means by its provisions not to govern India in England, but to remove those politics from the fountain-head of government, and to confine their exercise as much as may be to the spot of their existence, and to the channel in which they have been accustomed to flow: but, my [4 R]